Bruce60
Active Member
I have not had the leisure to read through this entire thread, but I'd like to comment on the complaints about this product and its pricing. I am a pathologist, so I know a bit about diagnostic tests. And while Mindstream tests salt water and not human body fluids, their business model is familiar.
The vendors that sell the instruments in diagnostic labs actually make most of their money on selling you the reagents to run the tests and not the instrumentation itself. However, the chemistry of the test is typically (but not always) common knowledge. They solve the problem of their business model by packing the chemical reaction in a proprietary package, thus ensuring a steady stream of revenue. Sound familiar?
As for the 30-day limit for each disc. That does not mean the test is valid on day 29 and invalid on day 30. Reagents do expire, and I am sure the testing disc deteriorates as described. What good laboratories do is study how these reagents perform over time under different conditions, and from those studies determine the proper balance between reliability of the test and economy. So, I would expect that under normal conditions the disc would work as reliably on day 31 as day 29, but there will be a point when the reliability is no longer acceptable. What is missing for us right now is the data that they generated to make this determination.
I would not be surprised if their pricing is also based on what they believe the market will bear. Remember, this is new technology, and the cost of new technology is always high. For those who are early adopters, they are willing to pay the price and live with some uncertainty. Most of us would rather wait for the technology to be more proven and the price to come down.
Personally, I am intrigued by this product and am seriously considering purchasing and performing some extensive testing of my own. How does this compare to the "gold standard" of current chemical tests? I put gold standard in quotes because sometimes the gold standard gets replaced by the new technology. Some have asked the value of tests every 15 minutes when common knowledge says that you need hours to days to reach equilibrium after addition of supplements or other changes. I would answer that while there may not be any value, I have learned of too many cases when looking at the same thing in a different way resulted in unexpected revelations.
As for the viability of this technology and the company, only time will tell....
The vendors that sell the instruments in diagnostic labs actually make most of their money on selling you the reagents to run the tests and not the instrumentation itself. However, the chemistry of the test is typically (but not always) common knowledge. They solve the problem of their business model by packing the chemical reaction in a proprietary package, thus ensuring a steady stream of revenue. Sound familiar?
As for the 30-day limit for each disc. That does not mean the test is valid on day 29 and invalid on day 30. Reagents do expire, and I am sure the testing disc deteriorates as described. What good laboratories do is study how these reagents perform over time under different conditions, and from those studies determine the proper balance between reliability of the test and economy. So, I would expect that under normal conditions the disc would work as reliably on day 31 as day 29, but there will be a point when the reliability is no longer acceptable. What is missing for us right now is the data that they generated to make this determination.
I would not be surprised if their pricing is also based on what they believe the market will bear. Remember, this is new technology, and the cost of new technology is always high. For those who are early adopters, they are willing to pay the price and live with some uncertainty. Most of us would rather wait for the technology to be more proven and the price to come down.
Personally, I am intrigued by this product and am seriously considering purchasing and performing some extensive testing of my own. How does this compare to the "gold standard" of current chemical tests? I put gold standard in quotes because sometimes the gold standard gets replaced by the new technology. Some have asked the value of tests every 15 minutes when common knowledge says that you need hours to days to reach equilibrium after addition of supplements or other changes. I would answer that while there may not be any value, I have learned of too many cases when looking at the same thing in a different way resulted in unexpected revelations.
As for the viability of this technology and the company, only time will tell....
